BlackBerry Q10 pictures and hands-on

If you've got a BlackBerry Bold in your pocket, then you may well have your eye on the BlackBerry Q10.

While BlackBerry - ditching the RIM name - launched the BlackBerry Z10 today as the lead device for the new BlackBerry 10 operating system, the keyboard-touting Q10 is the device that displays most of BlackBerry's heritage.

The keyboard is instantly recongnisable and the size and feel of the device scream Bold at you as soon as you pick it up.

The screen has grown, so it's now a 3.1-inch display with a 720 x 720 pixel resolution. Yes, it's square, with a 328ppi, so it’s pretty sharp. The square aspect works when in regular apps and diving around the OS, but as soon as you jump into your media, like a photo or movie, you'll obviously get those black bars.

The Super AMOLED display looks great though, with nice vibrant colours from what we saw in our brief time with the phone at the BlackBerry 10 launch in London.

Internally there's a 1.5GHz dual-core processor with 2GB of RAM, although without living with the phone it's difficult to gauge whether that's going to deliver a crisp experience or not.

However, everything seemed to tick along nicely as we swiped around BB10's gesture-based OS.

The BlackBerry Q10 is 10.3mm thick, but the curved edges to that soft-touch glassfibre weave back feel lovely in the hand.

There's little more to say about the next BlackBerry handset to land: while the BlackBerry Z10 will be available from tomorrow (in the UK), there's no official launch date for the Q10. The word on the floor here at the launch is March or April of this year.

We'll bring you a full review of the BlackBerry Q10 once it does launch, so you'll be able to decide whether it's time to replace your BlackBerry Bold.

Chris sits in the Editor’s chair, guiding the good ship Pocket-lint through the tumultuous seas of an ever-changing world of tech. Involved with Pocket-lint from its foundation, he’s best known for his critical eye and throwaway snark.